Insurance companies should pay for Cataract check up/ surgery with a view to reduce Orthopedic Fracture Claims being submitted by senior citizens.

Insurance companies should pay for Cataract check up/ surgery with a view to reduce Orthopedic Fracture Claims being submitted by senior citizens.

Everyone knows that older people undergo eye surgery to remove cataract andconsequently they improve their vision. A large sample study undertaken in USA has revealed that there is correlation between poor eye sight and hip fractures among senior citizens. It is noticed that for senior citizens, there is significant reduction of their risk of breaking a hip in a fall in case they have undergone cataract surgery. This study also revealed that those in their early 80s experienced nearly 30% fewer Hip Fractures in comparison to those who had not underwent cataract surgery. 

According to Dr. Anne L Coleman, the study’s lead author and a professor of Ophthalmology at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California “it is desirable that senior citizens should go in for Cataract Surgery as and when required as:

• It is safe and low cost surgery in comparison to complex orthopedic hip fracture surgery.
• It reduces Orthopedic Fracture rate among senior citizens significantly and reduces monetary expenses as well as painful surgery/ physiotherapy exercises which the senior citizen has to undergo.
•  An orthopedic Fracture rate is 30% lower in case of those who have gone Cataract surgery.

We know that orthopedic fracture surgery costs Rs 1.20lakh to Rs 2.00lakhs against Cataract surgery which costs Rs. 20000 to Rs 30000.

This leads us to the thinking that Insurance Companies in India should encourage senior citizens to go in for eye check up at 60 years + at interval of 2 years and also encourage them to go in for Cataract Surgery, if required. This will save large amount of claims which are filed/going to be filed in future (population of senior citizens is going to increase in the country in the coming years) under the head of Orthopedic Fracture Claims.